


wing of my fancy

by lotts (LottieAnna), silverandblue



Series: those magic changes [2]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Animal Transformation, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Magical Realism, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-03-28 08:31:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts, https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverandblue/pseuds/silverandblue
Summary: Let’s put it this way: if Willy were Cinderella, he wouldn’t let mice and birds build him a dress. He’d just skip the fucking ball, and probably fire the shitty fairy godmother who would expose him to that.(Or: tweet tweet, motherfuckers)





	1. Text

**Author's Note:**

> IF YOU FOUND THIS THROUGH GOOGLING, KNOW ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY PERSONALLY, OR ARE MENTIONED YOURSELF: please, please click away. This is a work of fiction and nothing written in this story is true. Any accurate information used in this story is publicly available information about public figures, the rest is made up, 100%.
> 
> A note from Lotts: this story is for silverandblue, and all her Podfic Bingo endeavors. Thanks to Ali, Ang, Ash, Tots, Susie, and Ciara for reading this silly little thing. Title from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella!

 

Willy isn’t joking when he says he doesn’t like animals. 

Like, some are better than others. Rodents are the worst of the worst, except for maybe insects, but Willy’s only really talking about, like,  _ animal- _ animals. Ones that have, like, eyes. Not that spiders don’t have eyes, but you can’t make eye contact with a spider. You can, however, make eye contact with a squirrel, which Willy would prefer to not do ever, in his entire life. 

Pets are fine. Dogs are awesome, and cats are fucking baller, but when it comes to, like, raccoons? No fucking thanks. Zoos are not Willy’s favorite place to be, and even aquariums give him the heebie-jeebies, and god, don’t even get him started on horses. 

 

Let’s put it this way: if Willy were Cinderella, he wouldn’t let mice and birds build him a dress. He’d just skip the fucking ball, and probably fire the shitty fairy godmother who would expose him to that. 

Actually, now that he’s thinking about it, that’s the exact kind of shit Kappy would pull as a fairy godmother, or fairy godbro, or whatever the fuck the word would be. Same with any of his friends, really. 

Willy needs better friends. 

Okay, Zach probably wouldn’t, but that’s only because if Zach was in charge of getting Willy to a ball to meet a prince, he would make sure that Willy actually got to the fucking ball to meet the prince. Even if the entire situation is ridiculous, because if Willy’s meeting any princes at any balls, Zach would probably be that prince.

“What are you talking about,” Kappy says flatly, when Willy tries to explain this to him. 

“I don’t know,” Willy says. “I don’t like mice.” 

“Okay,” Kappy says. “And what does that have to do with Zach?”

“I’m Cinderella, he’s prince charming,” Willy explains. He’s incredibly drunk, but he feels like this isn’t super hard to follow. Keep up, Kas. 

“But how did ‘I don’t like mice’ turn into a love story about you and Hyms?” 

“Because—Hyms. I don’t know. He’s pretty,” Willy says. “How are his arms so big?” 

“You should know, you work out with him,” Kappy says. 

“Don’t remind me,” Willy groans. “It’s the worst thing to ever happen to me.” 

“Why?” 

“Because, his arms,” Willy says. “I think he’s ruining my life.” 

There’s a pause, and then, “Wait, is this your way of telling me you’re in love with Zach?” 

Willy frowns, because he’s not in  _ love  _ with— 

He’s not in lo— 

He’s— 

Oh.

“Fuck,” Willy says slowly, as the world falls apart around him, probably. “Oh, fuck, I’m in love with Zach.” 

“And you got all that from mice?” Kappy says. 

Willy throws a pillow at him. “Shut up, I’m having a crisis.” 

“About mice?”

“About Zach, dipshit.”

“Why is it a crisis?” Kappy asks. “Just tell him, and then you two can, like, bone.” 

Willy gives him a look. “We can’t just, like, bone,” he says. “I’m in love. There are  _ feelings  _ involved.” 

“Then bone with feelings,” Kappy says. “I don’t see what the big deal is.” 

Willy just makes a whining noise at that. “Okay, remember when we watched that movie? With all the singing, and the chick from Pitch Perfect?” 

“You mean Pitch Perfect?”

“No, like, the musical,” Willy says. “The one with the woods.” 

“Oh, yeah, I gotchu,” Kappy says. 

“Remember the song about, like, agony?” Willy says. “It’s like that.” 

Kappy furrows his brow, and then, after a second, he says, “I don’t get it.” 

“How?” Willy asks, frustrated. “What is there to not get?” 

“I thought Zach was the prince,” Kappy says. 

“That’s—different thing, dude,” Willy says. “Y’know what, never mind, I’m going to bed.” 

“Alright,” Kappy says, as Willy walks away. “Have fun being in love with Zach.” 

“I won’t,” Willy says, and then he falls asleep with all his clothing on.  

 

The next morning, Willy is incredibly, extremely, unbelievably, phenomenally hungover. 

Also, there’s a bird in his room. 

Again: Willy does not like animals. 

“What the fuck is that noise,” Kappy yells through the door, and Willy blinks his eyes open, and it’s like— 

Zach. 

But a bird. 

“Excuse me,” Willy says. 

Zach just kind of chirps. He is a pretty small bird, which is kind of ironic, because Zach is a fairly large human. Willy is very aware of how large Zach is, because having to be around that is slowly destroying him, because of the whole being in love with him thing. 

“That one,” Kappy says. “Are you watching Animal Planet, or something?” 

“There’s a bird in here,” Willy calls back. 

“What,” Kappy says. 

“Come in,” Willy says. “It’s—a bird.” 

Kappy opens the door, looks around the room for a second before he sees it, sitting on Willy’s dresser. 

“Oh,” Kappy says, immediately calming down. “‘Sup, Hyms.” 

Zach chirps back, like he’s trying to be polite, but he can’t actually speak. 

Kappy nods like he got something out of it anyway. 

 

Willy gets the day off to watch Zach, but he doesn’t end up taking it; Zach is content to flit around the rink as they practice, and he actually sits in on tape review and shit. 

Mitch tries to make it into, like, a thing, which is a pretty dumb idea, because Zach might be a bird, but he’s still Zach. He’s not gonna start to fly around the room and cause a ruckus just because Mitch won’t stop blowing on his feathers. Zach as a bird seems content sitting calmly on Willy’s shoulder, listening to the coaches prep them for their next game. 

“Why’re you the one who gets to hang with him, anyway?” Mitch says afterwards, as Zach is perched on his hand. “Hyms and I are bros.” 

“Ask him when he turns back, I guess?” Willy says. “He was in my room this morning.” 

“Bro,” Mitch says, looking utterly betrayed. 

Zach just chirps, then nibbles at the sunflower seeds in Mitch’s hand.

 

“This is really not how I pictured getting into birdwatching,” Willy says later, once they’re at his house. “I kind of figured I’d be older, and there would be, like, binoculars.”

Zach just stares at him. Willy suspects that human Zach would do the same. 

“Come on, man,” Willy says. “You gotta give me that one.” 

Zach just turns around, then hops away from Willy. 

“Yo, that’s some straight disrespect, bro,” Willy says. 

Zach just makes a chirping sound, then flies up to sit on Willy’s head. 

“Oh my god,” Willy says. “Birds are the fucking best.” 

Zach hops on Willy’s head a few times, which kind of tickles, and Willy laughs. 

“Or maybe you’re just the best bird,” he says, maybe a little too fond. 

It’s easier to deal with being in love with Zach right now, because as long as he’s a tiny bird, Willy doesn’t have to stare at his huge arms. And really, for all Willy talks about Zach ruining his life, mostly, he just makes him smile a lot. 

Which is totally part of the problem, but. The good part of the problem. 

“Are there good parts to problems?” he wonders out loud. “Like, can something be the worst thing ever, but also be really awesome?” 

Zach chirps again, probably to say,  _ sure, William.  _

“I’m serious,” Willy says. “Are you even listening?” 

Zach lets out a single tweet. It sounds affirmative, but Willy’s suddenly wishing he knew more about bird calls, because he’d like to be sure. 

“Can you understand me?” Willy asks. “If I told you my deepest, darkest secrets, would they be, like, totally safe?” 

Zach chirps loudly at that, and he flaps his wings, kind of frantic. 

“If I tell you something when you’re a bird, and you were—what’s the word. Subpoenaed? Compelled to testify? Would you have to stand in front of a judge and say that you heard me confess my crime while you were a bird?” A thought occurs to Willy. “Wait, what if you’re the only witness? And your whole testimony sounds like bullshit? Oh my god, they totally wouldn’t be able to get me for anything,” he says gleefully. “Wait, should I turn to a life of crime?” 

Zach fixes him with a look. 

“Okay, you’re right, hockey probably pays just as well,” Willy says. “And it’s a little less dangerous. Maybe.” 

Maybe animals who can look you in the eye aren’t as bad as Willy thought. Birds are kind of funny to look at. 

 

“Hey,” Kappy says when he gets back. “How does the bird thing tie into the whole Cinderella bit?” 

“What?” Willy asks.

“From last night,” Kappy says. “Where you hate mice, and I’m the fairy godmother, and Zach should be the fairy godmother, but he’s the prince? But you’re also the prince? And now he’s a bird.” 

“None of the things you just said are related,” Willy says. 

“Yes, they are,” Kappy says. “The birds help the mice make the dress for the ball.” 

“Okay?” 

“So how does that work?” Kappy asks. “Cinderella didn’t fall in love with a bird.” 

“Dude, what the fuck,” Willy says. 

Kappy shrugs. “I just think you ought to get your story straight,” he says. “Maybe he’ll turn back when you sort your shit out.” 

“That’s not how these things work,” Willy says. 

“Sometimes it is,” Kappy says. 

Willy squints at him. “Did you do this on purpose?” 

“Nah,” Kappy says. “I’m just saying, it’s worth shooting your shot.” 

“Dude,” Willy says. “He’s right here.” 

They both turn to look at Zach, who is pecking at one of the throw pillows. 

He’s definitely trying to politely ignore them. 

“I’ll be in my room,” Kappy says. “Later.” 

“I hate you,” Willy calls after him, and Kappy throws him a peace sign. 

Once he hears the door close, Willy turns to look at Zach. He never knew it was possible to share an awkward silence with someone who can’t speak, but. It’s an unusual situation. 

 

“I’m kind of in love with you,” Willy says quietly to Zach, who is sitting in the palm of his hand. 

He doesn’t turn back into a person. 

Instead, he lets out a chirp, and Willy’s not really sure what it’s supposed to mean. 

He tries not to be too disappointed. 

 

Willy wakes up on his couch; it is dark outside, and Zach is standing on front of him, wearing sweats that don’t quite fit. 

“Hey,” Willy says groggily. “You’re a person.” 

“Yeah, my brothers are getting into magic, so shit like this happens,” Zach says. “They’re not that good yet.”

“Oh,” Willy says. 

“Yeah,” Zach says. “Kappy kept talking about some Cinderella metaphor? But it was just—”

“A coincidence,” Willy finishes. “So I didn’t have to—” 

“Yeah, you probably didn’t,” Zach says. 

“Well,” Willy takes a breath. “Whoops.” 

“I mean, I’m glad you did,” Zach says. 

Willy shrugs; he looks away from Zach, because his arms look even bigger in the too-small tee he probably borrowed from Kappy, and because the idea of looking Zach right in the eye is kind of unbearable, right now. “So, were you gonna head out?” 

“Um, I don’t really know,” Zach says. “I mean—is it okay if I stay?” 

“Why?” 

“To hang out,” Zach says. “Like, with you.” 

“You wanna hang out with me?” Willy asks. 

“I feel like we should probably rewatch Cinderella,” Zach says, offering Willy a half-smile. 

“Oh,” Willy says, confused. “Okay, I guess.” 

He’s not really sure what’s going on, for a bit; he thinks Zach is just trying to be nice, and show Willy that they can still be friends, except then Zach sits very close to him on the couch and stretches an arm across the back of the couch. 

“Is this good?” Zach asks. 

Willy blinks at him, but then he feels Zach’s hand fall to his shoulder. 

“Oh!” Willy says, and then he smiles. “Definitely.”

Zach grins, relieved, and Willy rests his head on Zach’s chest. 

 

So it turns out, Willy was wrong about a few things. 

For starters, he likes more animals than he thought he did, because birds are fucking awesome, and Kappy’s methods might be way too direct, but Willy concedes that he’d probably be a fairly efficient fairy godmother.

He was right about Zach’s arms being too large, though. They are truly unfair, and absolutely ruining Willy’s life.

(Just to be clear: Willy doesn’t actually mind, and is, in fact, perfectly happy to have his life ruined by Zach.)


	2. Podfic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to lotts, who wrote this for me when I asked if they could help me with my podfic bingo card. <3 I'm still working on actually submitting to the comm, but you all should know I recorded this story cold. The fact that I was able to pull usable audio from that take is absolutely incredible tbh. (Edited out, me cursing at: cars, my roommates, and HELICOPTERS.)
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy!  
  
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**_wing of fancy_ **  

  


Written by LottieAnna

Read by silverandblue

  
  


  
Length: 00:17:40

Size: 12.2 MB

Download: [MP3](http://www.mediafire.com/file/ow2vac33i66il11/%5Bpodfic%5D%20wing%20of%20my%20fancy.mp3)  
  
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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any kind comments would be greatly appreciated. <3


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